When Glenn Pirkle told his family that he'd decided to run for Gwinnett County's top office, they weren't convinced it was a great idea.

"My wife looked at me," Pirkle said, "and said 'you have lost your mind — but we will support you.' "

So did 10 percent of the county's registered voters, who gave the first-timer more support on Tuesday than he ever expected.

In turn, Pirkle was courted by both incumbent Gwinnett County Commission Chairman Charles Bannister and Commissioner Lorraine Green, who faces Bannister in a runoff. Each candidate hoped to take Pirkle's endorsement into the Aug. 5 runoff.

On Thursday, Pirkle endorsed Green. In a note he sent out to supporters, he said he ran for office because he wanted to make a difference in the way the county was run. The drop in the county reserve fund — "from $159 million to $71 million at the end of this fiscal year," he wrote — is a problem that he believed the chairman should have prevented.

Green said she felt "privileged" to have his support.

"He spoke to the ordinary citizen that often feel neglected in politics these days," Green said.

They will campaign together this weekend, Green said, when they go door to door in the northern part of the county.

Pirkle said he hasn't written off politics for good — he's learned a lot about public speaking, and getting comfortable with crowds — but at the moment, he's eager to get back to his real life as an electrical contractor, active member of Zion Hill Baptist Church and restorer of antique tractors.

"We have about six," Pirkle said of the fleet of old farm machines he and wife Susan keep on their 16-acre spread in Buford. That spread is also home to llamas, sheep and chickens and has been in the family since 1963.

The Pirkles travel all over the country to look at tractors and display the ones they buy in events such as Dacula's Memorial Day parade (pictured on his Web site www.glennpirkle.com) and the Old Time Farm Days event his church puts on every November.

"It's a cheap thrill," Pirkle said. "You get a high without drinking a drop."